It’s the end of 2016, and already the web is filled with enterprise technology predictions for the new year. Here are five of our favorite predictions for 2017, and a look at how each one reflects the need for companies to improve their development and testing processes:

IoT Interoperability: As InfoWorld recently predicted, “All the major public clouds now have IoT platforms, which are crucial to IoT progress, so you can expect Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and IBM Cloud to deliver their own Greengrass-like offerings in 2017.” Anyone developing an enterprise app needs to be aware of the evolving application layers that will, in effect, control access to the growing number of connected devices. Will your new app be ready for any new platform that emerges? It could be if it’s using tools like Service Virtualization to test early, and realistically, for live environments?

A coming-out party for augmented/virtual reality:IDC predicts that in 2017, some 30 percent of all consumer companies in the Global 2000 will be experimenting with more immersive experiences through augmented, or virtual, reality. Further, the group says, “In 2018, the monthly active user base of consumers using mobile augmented reality apps (e.g., Pokemon Go) will exceed 400 million. By 2020, over 20 percent of commercial media on Facebook will be 360-degree VR, as social goes ‘immersive.’ Dark horse scenario: 20 percent of all social media is 360-degree by 2020. In 2019, companies will deploy earworn wearables, with AI-enabled voice interface, as digital assistants for customer-facing roles (in retail, for example).” Again, the imperative for companies is to be sure their dev teams are nimble enough to meet the new immersive market where it’s going. As Gartner recommends, “Enterprises should look for targeted applications of VR and AR through 2020.”

New digital technology platforms: Gartner also predicts that successful companies will need to meet customers on new and emerging digital technology platforms. “Every organization will have some mix of five digital technology platforms: Information systems, customer experience, analytics and intelligence, the Internet of Things and business ecosystems,” analysts said. “Companies should identify how industry platforms will evolve and plan ways to evolve their platforms to meet the challenges of digital business.”

More IT automation: As Sven Hammar, CEO of the web monitoring company Apica, predicted in PC Magazine, the premium is going up on companies’ ability to automate functions around app testing. Why? App quality, always critical, can quickly eliminate your competitiveness in the market. “In order to stay competitive, organizations have sped up their application development to light speed by moving away from traditional three layers of testing to an automated model,” he says. “Unfortunately, some organizations hesitate to automate … resulting in competitors eating up any market share available.”

DevOps solidifies its position as standard operating procedure: What started as a nice idea — Why can’t everybody in dev and ops just get along? — evolves into the mainstream. Software deployments for companies using DevOps approaches are now 200x more frequent, according to the fifth State of DevOps report, a survey of 4,600 tech professionals. The report found that teams using DevOps spent 22 percent less time on unplanned work (i.e., fixing mistakes) and 50 percent less time on security remediation. CEOs and CIOs everywhere are seeing these benefits and will continue pushing their teams to check out DevOps in 2017.